March 29, 2024

Gracious winners, losers are best

Possessing a winning attitude doesn’t mean a player or team needs to be unsportsmanlike. Being gracious in winning is just as important as in losing an athletic venture.

I’m proud as a sports journalist and a fan to say Newton High’s athletes — along with athletes from the four other schools we cover at the Newton Daily News — are gracious winners and losers. Unfortunately, I witnessed a couple of not-so gracious — one loser and one winner — from opponents this week of Newton’s girls in soccer.

Those following the Cardinal girls to the Class 2A state soccer tournament Thursday were hoping for a longer run at Cownie Soccer Complex. Facing the top-seeded team in the tournament for the second straight year, Newton came up short. As NHS head coach Abby Lamont said, the Cardinals had a heck of run this season.

So, the 2017 spring sports season officially came to a close Thursday afternoon for the Newton Daily News. All focus turns to high school baseball and softball along with three racing weekends at Iowa Speedway.

It was great to see Newton High’s baseball team get off the snide Wednesday night. The first win of the season came against Pella. The Cardinals made it back-to-back wins at home Thursday, beating BGM. They are 2-12. They head to Norwalk Friday night going after their second Little Hawkeye conference victories.

Moving to Major League Baseball for a minute, last Saturday was a special day for my Kansas City Royals and a former Royals’ pitcher.

Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura, who was killed in a car crash in the Dominican Republic this year, would have been 26 last Saturday. His presence is still felt by many in the organization.

The Royals trailed the Cleveland Indians in front of a home crowd last Saturday. They rallied for a 12-5 victory on Ventura’s birthday.

But wait, it gets better.

Down in Miami, Fla., former Royals’ pitcher Edinson Volquez took the mound for the Miami Marlins on his friends’ birthday. Volquez and Ventura were on Kansas City’s 2015 World Series championship team.

Volquez threw the sixth no-hitter in Marlins history, facing the minimum 27 batters, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-0. Tied for the major league lead in losses when the game began, he struck out 10, and the two baserunners who reached on walks were erased by double plays. He needed 98 pitches, the last of those striking out Chris Owings to complete the masterpiece.

“When I passed the seventh, I said, ‘I’m going to go for it,’” Volquez said. “And I got it.”

It’s the first no-hitter in the majors since Jake Arrieta did it for the Cubs on April 21, 2016, at Cincinnati, and the first time Arizona was no-hit since the Marlins’ Anibal Sanchez threw one on Sept. 6, 2006.

Volquez (2-7) was nearly knocked out of the game after just one batter, when he collided with Diamondbacks leadoff man Rey Fuentes as he covered first, rolled his ankle and took a hard fall to the turf.

He and Volquez were not just countrymen, but close friends.

“It was special for me to dedicate the game to him,” Volquez said.

This Saturday is the final race of the Triple Crown series. There will be no Triple Crown winner this year. Always Dreaming won the Kentucky Derby but Cloud Computing was the Preakness winner. Neither horse is running in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. Irish War Cry is the favorite going into the Belmont Stakes.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets
at jsheets@newtondailynews.com